The first thing that struck me from this week’s reading was from the second line on New York’s 2016 Executive Order regarding Access to Single Sex Facilities Consistent with Gender Identity and Expression.
“WHEREAS, the New York City Human Rights Law has expressly prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression since 2002.”
Is that not absolutely BONKERS? I feel like 2002 was NOT that long ago… That’s honestly my full thought, that just really surprised me.
I’ve always been baffled on the most baseline argument for allowing trans people to use the bathrooms for their chosen gender identity. Privacy stalls inside restrooms exist for a reason, and I don’t know about anyone else… but I don’t usually spend my time in restrooms peeking in on other people to see what they’re up to. I suppose what I mean to say is, a trans person using a restroom isn’t in any way “in your face.” One would argue that it’s the opposite. All this to say, it is also BONKERS that it needs to be an argument at all.
TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) often, but not always, fall under what I see as cultural feminism – women who preach for the cause of women when it is convenient or appropriate for them. I feel like my own interpretation of feminism has shifted so vastly since first discovering the concept of feminism itself, but I can’t imagine ever wanting to specifically exclude other women from my beliefs; because trans women are women. Why in the world should someone else’s identity affect me or god forbid, my bathroom of choice?
